Williams confirmed that he's the man behind BCC Fund I Limited Partnership, which the FDIC identified this week as the successful bidder for two packages of loans from the defunct Bank of Clark County.

The FDIC auctioned the loans last month from the Vancouver bank that failed in January.

Williams declined further comment. But according to the FDIC, BCC Fund 1 paid just more than $2 million for one bunch of loans with an outstanding balance of $6.1 million. BCC also successfully bid $3.3 million for a group of 53 other loans with an outstanding balance of $10.3 million.

That means BCC paid about a third of the outstanding balance of the loans.

As the economy has soured, financial regulators have shut down dozens of banks across the country. Three were in the greater Portland area: Bank of Clark County, Pinnacle Bank in Beaverton and Silver Falls Bank in Silverton.

The FDIC has tried to arrange for other stronger banks to buy the assets of these failed institutions. But when it's been unable to find a buyer for the loans, as was the case with Bank of Clark County and Silver Falls Bank, it is auctioning them off to the highest bidder.

The first group of 414 Bank of Clark County loans -- separated into 23 different groupings -- were sold May 12. The FDIC disclosed the winning bidders this week.

The loans, which had an outstanding balance of $170.4 million, fetched a total price of $90.8 million, or 53 cents on the dollar.

Matrix Advisors, a New York investment firm, was the biggest buyer, acquiring nine bunches of loans for $40.4 million. Matrix paid a relatively rich 68 cents on the dollar for the loans.

The $170 million worth of loans amounts to about half of Bank of Clark County's loans. When the FDIC will sell the balance of the bank's portfolio is unclear.

News of Williams' acquisition of the loans may be good news for those Bank of Clark County borrowers who will now make their payments to BCC.

Some of those borrowers are already furious at their treatment by the FDIC, which in some cases froze credit lines or demanded repayment of loans from borrowers who were current on their payments.

They feared that their situations would only worsen if their loan was bought by some anonymous investor from out of the area who neither knows nor cares about their individual financial issues.

Williams is local, and he's a veteran of the real estate industry. His companies have borrowed money dozens of times, so he knows what it means as a borrower to have to renegotiate a troubled loan.